Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Tooth Fairy came!

Elvis' bottom front tooth is finally disconnected from his head. For the first time in my life, I pulled someone else's tooth. Yuck. When my students need one pulled, I take them across the hall to another K teacher who doesn't mind yanking them. Since she doesn't live with me however, I had to be the one to pull Elvis' tooth when it was obviously time for it to come out. I did get it out without much effort (but there was quite a bit of blood, though).


After I pulled it, we cleaned him and it up and then stuck the tooth in a ziploc bag and put it under the pillow. Since he's non-verbal, I really felt we were doing this more for us than for him but it felt right to go through the motions.


At bedtime, he wouldn't go to sleep. He just laid in bed and laughed. All night long, he dozed then laughed. We were up and down all night but not in the usual way. He wasn't crying or upset - he was just giggly. Finally, about 5:00 AM, I put him in bed with me, planning to doze until the alarm went off at 5:30. However, as soon as I put him down, he curled towards his bed and was staring intently at his pillow. It finally hit me that he was wanting to see what the tooth fairy had brought. As soon as I picked up his pillow and he saw his money, he was fine. He clutched the dollar but kept on laughing. I felt better at least knowing what his deal was. I also felt better knowing he had the cognitive ability to know about the tooth fairy and know that it was something to be excited about. Way to go, Elvis!!!


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